The Songbird that Flies Over the Rising Sun
by Elfreida
Summary: Five months have passed since the events in hell's gate, yet to general surprise the world is still spinning. If you count the American military on the streets of Tokyo, the antics of the rapidly recovering mob and the terror of renegade contractors. But as the dust settles, new whispers speak of old secrets, and things not quite forgotten... Based on 1st season episode structure
1. Prologue: The Night Is For Dying

_**Prologue: The Night is for Dying**_

It wasn't pain that drove him to his knees. Not the gunshot that punched into his side, despite the coat protecting him, nor the agony spearing his limbs. Nor even the anguish that tore greedily at his heart as nothing had done in a long time.

It was simply exhaustion.

Sheer, crushing exhaustion. The incalculable weight of what he had done –

No! No, now wasn't the time. With skill only a contractor could master, he stamped back the tendrils of distraction, and emptied himself of thought. Yet even this was not enough, not nearly enough, to quell the ringing in his ears or the fog obscuring his eyes.

The part of him still thinking rationally knew the exercise was pointless. If he approached the wall, there would be an army waiting for him – whose, exactly, was a little vague: it depended on who had won, and for one thing and another he hadn't really been paying attention. Still, it remained that whomever he would meet he no longer had the strength to fight. And, for the heavily armed squad behind him, he couldn't go back. For any other contractor, the choice would have been simple: surrender and agree to barter his charge for his life.

It was the logical thing to do.

Even with his thoughts in check, he flinched from the idea, his heart colder than if it had been packed with ice. Unbidden, the eyes that were themselves like the night sky dropped to the girl in his arms. She was naked but for his holding her to him, her skin still shining with the strange, white light; her hair a cascade of moonlight that fell sheer of his right arm. Moments passed as he stared at the porcelain features, the hand behind her head brushing so slightly against her cheek.

Would that he could simply have killed her. Would that he had just done what he knew he must and brought the knife to her chest…perhaps it would even have been less painful.

The smallest movements travelled through the gloved fingers as the girl stirred, jolting him back to reality. Despite the protest in his legs, he rose achingly to his feet and forced his vision open. There wasn't much to see: under the false stars' half-light the desolation and lifelessness surrounding the gate was compounded in the jagged shadows, yet here and there were pools of a deeper darkness that filled him with an untraceable unease. He stared about in indecision, considering the narrow list of options. Within this ghost city behind the wall, there were plenty of places to hide…

The pale-white girl, still held tightly in his arms, suddenly shifted so her face burrowed into his chest. A hand, the colour of true starlight, rose like a feather in the evening breeze, fingertips gently seeking out the sharp line of his jaw; the high, graceful profile of his cheekbones. It was imperceptibly soft, and for just a moment the slender fingers travelled unchecked across his skin, slipping in movements likened more to water than flesh.

He froze, wide eyes darting down. The hope and terror that had carried him so far burned painfully inside as the violet eyes fluttered slowly open, and turned to look straight into his.

It was a moment for which he thought he had prepared himself. He had braced for an empty shell, devoid of everything of who she had been. For an entity, alien and strange, the last remnants of humanity washed away.

For Izanami.

And, right on the edge of hope, for the girl he had waited so long, fought so hard to find.

Yet now she gazed with eyes shining silver bright, full of a sad beauty that seemed to swallow him whole and bring him crashing back to his knees. A wave of exhaustion followed like a brick wall, blurring everything except her face. As blackness gathered at the fringes of his mind, a single whispered word escaped his dry lips.

"Yin."


	2. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Pt1

_****(I do not own, but hope to honor the work of Philip K Dick and Ridley Scott)_

_**Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Part One.**_

"What would you say was the most dangerous, most immediate threat to us? Misaki?" The large man in the sharp suit stared hard, and for all her fire, Kirihara Misaki shrank back in her chair. It grated when he used her name. The way he stared without blinking.

"Contractors? Horrors pouring from the gate?"

"Ourselves." The voice was beautiful, melodic even – Misaki had never heard anything like it. "But, if you were asking at a more basic level," It continued. "I would have to say it was love."

The shock that went around the room was as if a lightning bolt had hit the conference table. Misaki spun to face the stranger, and she wasn't the only one. Every one of the present faces had the same mesmerised horror. Hazuki felt her hand move of its own accord to the katana at her side, fingers curling. Only Mao, concealed as he was in Misaki's bag, sat hastily trying to stifle a laugh.

"And why would you say that?" Even the man in the suit appeared thrown off balance.

"Well, wouldn't you say so?"

It was a woman. Her skin was easily as pale as the white wall behind her, her hair black as a raven's wing. But the most arresting feature were her eyes – a green that reminded Misaki of a pond reflecting the summer sun through overhanging trees. For a moment, they had held a wild, steeled beauty, but it was strangely unmatched the plain skirt, the black heels; the way her hair was gathered and pinned back so that only two strands escaped to fall beside her face. And even as Misaki watched, the wildness receded, replaced seamlessly by a nervous, girlish innocence.

She smiled. She could only have been in her early twenties. Could she even have been younger? _Who was she?_

"You see," She continued tentatively. "You can make all the plans in the world – all the rational decisions, all the little calculated assumptions…"

The smile, which _was_ truly beautiful, carried her forward. _And how had the voice changed?_ Misaki wondered. She noticed around the table too: how everyone seemed to relax, even the contractor with the ever-present sword at her hip. All eyes followed her to her seat near the table's end, but now only Misaki's held suspicion. They all hung like hooked fish on what she was going to say –

"But love…" The ex-policewoman jumped. "Well…love changes everything, doesn't it? Every decision, every chance, without sense or warning. It can destroy a life, a family –" she looked up at the suited man. "– even an entire nation."

"So you believe love is the destroyer?" Hazuki pitched coldly.

"Well, it's not quite that, just – the human condition." She laughed at the notion. "Though I do believe it's all too often that humans are at the cause of their own calamity."

"Hmm…true." The large man seemed to deflate. "This, for those of you who don't know her –"

He received the dual rows of blank stares without comment.

"– is Miss Rose Evelyn, otherwise known as Primrose, the new head of Human Resources."

"'Human Resources'?"

"The department was established after the review two months ago." His grey eyes fell stonily to Misaki, but this time she met them.

"I haven't seen anything like that! And you talk like you're…"

"Running a business." Hazuki raised her eyebrows.

The man stood straight, his eyes flashing dangerously, before answering very quietly.

"And how did you think we were funded?"

A clang resounded as Misaki's fist hit the table.

"So aggressive. It's quite attractive for you."

"We did not come this far to make business! We are an intelligence faction! And everything we've sacrificed…" Her voice cracked, and suddenly they all remembered what was still so fresh for her. Indifferent to the comment on the tip of her tongue, Hazuki tactfully remained quiet as the two glared at one another.

"I assume you're referring to the death of the previous director, Gorō Kobayashi?"

Attention snapped to Primrose. Quailing, she fumbled the clasp as she anxiously retrieved a file from her bag.

"Killed in action…almost five months ago?"

"A week after the incident in Hell's gate." The man viewed the file with distaste.

"The violence that followed the CIA's military offensives tore Tokyo apart. We were fortunate not to lose more of our team." The speaker, who Misaki remembered was Katô Chokichi, smiled weakly at Primrose, who appeared to recover herself. This needled even more, but it didn't drown out what the suited man said next.

"Violence that could erupt again at any provocation." Without looking at either of them, he closed Gorō Kobayashi's file with a snap. "While we chase ghosts we forget the enemy we face at our door. It is this enemy that threatens us first, not demons. What our focus must be from now on," He looked straight at Misaki. "Is _prioritising_."

* * *

"Excuse me, ah, Miss Kirihara?"

The last person she wanted to see. _And her name again?_ Perhaps if she kept walking…

"Miss Kirihara?"

She turned, wondering briefly how the girl could have caught up wearing stilettoes.

"Might I have a moment?"

To her surprise, Primrose bowed low as Misaki turned, eliciting some strange looks from the corridor's other occupants.

"There's…no need to be so formal." Misaki muttered awkwardly. "What did you want?"

"Just, just to talk." Primrose replied haltingly as she gathered her breath. In spite of her original sentiments, Misaki sighed and moved to stand squarely in front of her. Close to, she saw she had been generous in supposing her age – she could not have been older than twenty, perhaps nineteen at most. Yet there were little scars: just below her left ear, on her nose…

"How did you get this job?" She asked coldly.

"Oh, I had a good word." The smile re-appeared. "Not that I don't know my way around a filing system –"

"You have an accent."

"Ah, well," Misaki watched the green eyes flick to the pretty shoes. "I only just arrived here you see. I'm English really – how's my Japanese do you think?"

"Perfect. Just…"

"Accented."

_Like November 11's_ she thought softly. It had been a long time since she had thought of him, but maybe it had to do with absent comrades –

"…only I hope you don't feel threatened, I'm not here to - to run things, just to keep things organised, I suppose. And I mean, really – Miss Kirihara?"

But Misaki was staring out the window on their left. It held the Tokyo skyline: bitten and scratched as if it had been mauled. Below she could feel the city she loved in the abandoned streets, the roads cracked by tanks. Yet it wasn't the physical blemishes – the burned trees and broken glass – but rather the people that it hurt to see. Scars that ran deeper than any injury, but which burned in the eyes of the hungry and scared.

And the irony was that if it had not been for the gate – for its apparent value to the world – they would likely have died out altogether.

"I saw pictures on the news." The girl said quietly. "Bodies lining the streets and fires that blazed on for days and days. So much death…"

_And strife will continue for eternity._

Yet, for all their following the prophecy, Misaki couldn't help but think Primrose and her new boss Morita had been right. In the end, the strife that cut into the world was only their doing.

"Is it true?"

And there was that melody again; that grace and gravitas that contrasted so starkly with the rest of her.

"Is what true?"

"About…Izanami?"

She already knew. That was obvious, but there was something else unspoken. Wordlessly, Misaki nodded. Without turning back, she gestured for Primrose to follow as she resumed her stride. In the lift, she pressed the button for sub-basement six, turning a key from her pocket. They descended and exited into a corridor smelling heavily of disinfectant before taking a right, then a left, slowed by the security checkpoints where Misaki was forced to present her ID and clearance. At last though, they came to a door braced with chromed steel. As she swiped her card, Misaki stole a glance at her passenger, but the pale face was unreadable.

For a room so heavily guarded, it was surprisingly empty. Only a sarcophagus-like box stood in the centre, bolted to the floor and connected to the ceiling through wires suspended above the lid. A harsh breath hissed past Primrose's lips.

It was cold. Very cold.

When they came close, Primrose reached out a hand, stopping it just shy of the forbidding, grey metal. A garden of frost grew into a forest beneath her fingers.

She jumped as Misaki started the opening sequence.

"How was it that your people found her? And – and do you even know how it is she's still alive?" The innocent nervousness was back, but now Misaki had the feeling it covered for something else. When the lid slid apart, perhaps she imagined her eyes glistening; her throat tightening. But not her fingers, white as Yin's own, reaching for the doll's gentle face, before drawing suddenly short.

"_Who are you?_"

Anger laced the question, but Primrose did not answer it. She simply withdrew the hand and turned, leaving Misaki to her racing thoughts.

* * *

"Do you think she dreams?"

Misaki glared into her coffee.

"I mean, for a doll…"

"She _was_ a doll."

"Ichinose Yayoi to evidence lab four." The voice sputtered from the speaker on her desk. It escaped her why it still used her alias, but nevertheless she obeyed, followed by Primrose. She had been granted clearance, so no one objected, but still Misaki thought they should – ever since the vault, she had watched the girl obsessively. There was definitely something wrong…as if the rest of section three walked about with their eyes closed.

"We received this two hours ago." The technician, Seiko, held up a bottle.

"Good taste," Hazuki mused in the corner. "Thoughtful, except it's empty."

"It had a message." Chokichi said dryly.

"Information for sale," Seiko moved to a glass screen on the wall. "A time and a place."

"This is ridiculous!" Misaki hissed. The screen held a map of Tokyo's west districts – or rather what had _been_ the west districts. The parts that hadn't been flattened now housed those seeking shelter among the ruins: a motley collection of unfortunates, desperates, and the odd black market racketeer. "You're going to rely on information from in there?"

"It's the first promising lead in months."

"We can't even get there without being seen by the Americans!"

"Oh, I'm sure we could plot a route around them." Primrose traced a finger over the streets. "The address is in an old bar."

"It's still ridiculous! In a place like that –"

"_Misaki!_" Morita's voice was magma beneath a glacier. "You're not cop…not any more. You go where you're sent."

* * *

The skies were dismal. As she walked, alone, grey water slid in sheets off of her coat, soaking into her shoes. It wasn't a part of the city she'd known well before, much less now it had been transformed into a make-shift slum. Yet here, hidden from view, she found shops. Hundreds of them. Each stacked against the next, selling everything from steamed buns to old computer parts, with rooms packed behind and above, all sheltered by the splintered walls. The effect was like being inside a wasp's nest, and Misaki noted the quality or damage of some of the trinkets that told of the abandoned house they had been taken from. Time was when she would have brought in a unit to shut the whole place down…

A white glint caught her eye. It was in front of a woman selling odd pieces of jewellery: a simple chain hanging a silver charm. A unicorn at gallop.

"You have money?"

Misaki nodded.

"American money?"

She shook her head. The woman looked disappointed, but exchanged it nonetheless.

"Perhaps it will bring you what you're looking for!" The wrinkled face cackled. Not knowing what to say, Misaki nodded and left quickly, clutching the charm in her hand.

_Yes, times had changed._

The rain continued to pour, congealing with steam billowing from open laundries and bubbling pots, leaving the air in a fog that half concealed the bare-footed children scampering beneath. They looked wild, their filthy clothes and cut hands belaying the meanness of their existence. Her skin crawled. After just five months, the sight seemed almost…normal.

She sniffed.

Despite the fog, she could smell tell-tale fume of an eye-watering spirit, wafting through the mist. She was in the right place. Though, having stopped in the middle of the thoroughfare, she couldn't shake the growing feeling that something was wrong. She wished fervently that she had Mao – he would tell her she was imagining it; that they needed to get moving. But Morita had set him on patrol, leaving her to go it alone.

And still there was that creeping doubt, as if something was closing in…

* * *

On the ledge of an apartment marked by a fissure down the outer wall, eyes watched. Eyes like yellow milk, full of flickering curiosity. A strand of filthy blonde hair fell across them as their subject turned into the buckled building at the end of the street.

Paper lips curled. A hand with sharply hooked nails rose to sweep away the hair. In the strange light, it looked almost like claws…

* * *

Cigarette smoke. The smell of alcohol, and must, and men. As she entered, Misaki's instincts rebelled. With the windows boarded, the only real light came from the eerie green lamp above the bar, leaving the rest of the room in pools of shadow. This didn't appear to bother the room's only other occupants however, all three of whom were clustered around the light. There was the barkeep, whose burned face she tried not to linger on, a customer half-way through a bottle of vodka, and a waiter who stood leaning against the wooden side, his back to her. If it hadn't been for the gloom and the lank hair creeping its way down his neck, the image would have been very…familiar. She shook her head.

"Oi! You here to order?" The barman's voice sounded like gravel being crunched.

"I'm looking for someone."

There was a thump as the man with the vodka dropped his head onto the bar.

"I'll forgive your being disappointed." He responded dryly. Misaki dipped her head. She was about to turn and leave when he added, "Though there was a man here."

"When?"

"Left in a hurry, about half an hour ago. Like someone was following him."

The hairs on Misaki's neck stood on end.

"Where did he go?"

"Didn't ask." He turned back to cleaning glasses. A sudden draft pulled the ends of her coat, but she ignored it as she started forward.

"I need to talk to him!"

"Can't help you." He didn't look up. He didn't move. She noticed the waiter had ducked down below the bar; that the man had roused and was pouring himself another drink in a hand that shook.

Then she turned round.

"Good afternoon," The man had a long nose and a longer brown coat that fell to the floor. "Here I wondered when someone else would show. Only reason for a man like him to surface...would be for a woman like you."

"Ichinose Yayoi, I –"

"Pleasure." He had a cane rather like a baton, flourishing it as Misaki watched. "But I'm going to have to insist you answer a few questions before we get acquainted."

"I don't know what you're –"

A rush of air followed as someone else came through the door, rough clothes billowing as if he had just dropped from a great height. The yellow eyes gleamed, but he did not speak. Misaki recoiled.

"You understand information is an expensive commodity nowadays. I wonder, who is it would have paid for today?"

Her eyes darted between the two men.

"Him?" The man in the long coat looked to his side. "For him, the price of information was his tongue. Not exactly a loss if you ask me, but it makes something of a point."

He advanced slowly, eyes like tarnished copper coins. Misaki shook her head in rising panic.

"I don't –"

The man with the yellow eyes leapt before she could move and pinned her arms to her sides, nails cutting into the flesh.

"Now, Miss Kirihara, I want to know all about your little group. The new director, the computer systems, the building keys," The copper eyes bored into hers as the man stepped closer. "And if you tell us here, now, you may even _walk _away."

She gasped. Blood trickled down her sleeves.

"I see this is going to be more difficult than I'd hoped."

"You're contractors?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Very good."

"Then let me go!" Misaki tried to tear away, but the man holding her grabbed onto her hair, his foul breath against her neck. "My people have no interest in pursuing you, there's no rational reason to hold me. Let me go!"

"We were cast out. Hunted," Now the man bared his teeth, anger printed on the sallow skin. "Not even the crime bosses touch us now."

"Wewenge."

She flinched violently as the man behind moved to put one long-nailed finger to her face. And still she couldn't move, tremors rattling her limbs. The man with the cane raised it just high enough to tickle her chin, lips twisting in a horrific smile.

"Painful," He whispered. "To live in fear. No? Well, we'll find out."

From its base, the black wood cloaked slowly blue, blinding her to all else. Blood rushed through her ears. Her throat was sandpaper, a hissing croak issuing out as she tried to call. But who would come? She was alone, she realised suddenly, utterly alone. The world had stripped her naked – or perhaps it had been her. Faced with failure for the most useless, most pathetic reason, she truly had no one. No one left.

In that bleak moment, she thought she imagined the wire.

It wrapped itself improbably around the smooth surface, before pulling taught and tearing it away.

Misaki's heart flipped over. But before she could think, before any of them could react, the thunderclap built within the cane released in a deafening explosion, throwing the world into chaos. The creature behind released its grip and she took her chance, planting an elbow in his side as she charged forwards. Glass shattered somewhere behind her, but for the moment she was indifferent: her ears rang with whatever thunder the contractor could make and in the gloom she was blind. Desperately, she turned again and again to find the door, smashing headlong into a table and sprawling to the floor.

Up and down reversed, and for several seconds all she could do was clutch absurdly at the floor. Whatever the fight behind her, however, she had to move faster than that. Crawling, she followed the direction she'd been going in and felt relief flood her at the draft. Pitching crazily, she bolted for the cold air, barely avoiding braining herself against the door. Outside, the rain was sweet as a spring, spraying softly as she lurched on, not caring that she was quickly lost. Eyes followed her, but they all melted together as she turned into backstreets unnumbered. As she ran, colours swirled like flocks of butterflies, scattering like starscapes, the noises and smells and sounds forming an orchestra whose beauty she couldn't believe for not having noticed before.

She swayed to a stand-still. It was beautiful – _why had that eluded her for so long?_ When the stalls in front of her erupted into splinters before a second thunderclap, they bathed the world in shining white. And she thought of the unicorn. How if you looked at the smoke –

There was a crunch as Kirihara Misaki hit the ground.


	3. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Pt2

_**Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Part Two**_

Many wondered if contractors could dream. It would be a strange thing to be so cut off, but there again perhaps it had to do with the absence of emotion, like dolls. Without dreams, both could sit apart from the world, from the rest of the human race, and perform their function. Nothing more complicated than that.

There were even some who wished it were true.

But in their exile, the rumours changed. The stories that had once made sense took on nightmare quality, banishing them from the streets: whispers, in dark places, of torture and violence. Not rational acts, but full of terror and rage, beyond even reason's grasp.

* * *

_He was falling again. A storm of burning nails reaved his chest…_

Eyes followed the girl with the black hair, bent double beneath her companion whose blood spotted the floor. He was still conscious, but his face was grey, his eyes shut.

_What did it matter if he let go now? His ears throbbed as if he was under water…_

The girl stopped over the rough pile of blankets in the corner and dropped her passenger. The impact seemed to jolt him, and he moaned involuntarily, the dark stain that had started at his collar bone spreading a little more towards his abdomen. Without bothering for decency, she tore open the black coat and the shirt beneath, reaching for one of the knives to cut the soaked bandages. Even with the gushing blood, they stuck with a congealed, greenish mass that forced her to tear them away from the skin.

His whole body spasmed. Sweat trickled through the black tangle of hair. His blood was on fire as it flowed freely from the claw marks tracking over his rib cage.

_Free-fall, toward a black ocean that rose to greet him…_

* * *

White sunshine. It flowed like water.

Sand trickled through his fingers as he explored what it was he was lying on. Waves of the sea crashed gently somewhere behind him. The intrinsic warmth was tempered by a cold wind, rushing down from the fjords in the north. It carried a scent: of salt, and ice, and the sheer rock of home. He lay back, eyes closed, and let the world flow over him. The pain had gone, and everything else…

Laughter. High and strong like the first wing strokes of a new bird.

It was hard to move; to turn his head, just a little. But the sound drew him with an invisible cord – it came from children playing delightedly at the edge of the surf. From a little girl, stood apart from the others in her best, blue dress, white hair caught free in the wind. She smiled openly at her world, her home. She reached down to capture the sparkles gliding beneath the surface, the water swirling about her feet.

"Yin…" Hei breathed softly. Her white skin caught the light like something from an ancient story.

"Kirsi."

He couldn't remember getting to his feet. Light shone into his eyes, but he hesitated to turn, afraid of what he might see. She was watching the child, and shook her head.

"Kirsi."

"Yin!"

He stumbled forward, catching on the waves. She turned, tears falling, a question shining in the violet eyes.

"Hei?"

Forging relentlessly on, he didn't stop until he stood before the visage of Yin, clad in white silk that mirrored the falling light.

"Don't leave me alone!" The words tumbled from him like an old song, playing over and over.

"I can only cause you pain."

And she was already tearing away from him, fading with the sun and the sky. Desperately he lunged forward, salt water flooding his mouth as he fell, choking, beneath the surface. Lights swirled as he tried to turn, drowning in a thick, endless darkness. Ahead, she was a star his arms reached to encircle, but only empty air.

Pain arced through his heart until he couldn't bear it. He closed his eyes, shutting out the circling lights, and willed with all his life to bring her back. An orange star, far away, watched as light grew about his centre. It didn't understand. _What power was this?_ One light in a sea of stars, yet it burned like it had in the gate…

It pulled, not to _them_, but to _her_.

He felt her pain to his own.

"Yin…"

* * *

"Hei!"

The night-eyes snapped open. Blue light filled the hall with the first traces of dawn.

"How long did I sleep?"

"The night." A black cat jumped to sit next to his head. "You screamed right through it, though. Scared the shit out of most of these guys."

Absently, he raised a hand to stroke the new-comer. Mao dropped his head so Hei could scratch him behind the ears.

"You ran a fever. Accelerated blood poisoning, but the wounds weren't deep. Mao found penicillin." Primrose came into view on his right, black hair falling to her waist, blood splattered over her navy dress. "I gave you a memory to cushion the pain."

Now he sat up.

"You can manipulate memories?"

"Consciousness. And more than that, but I told you the truth when I said I was no contractor." She sighed heavily as if something hurt. "It's more complicated than that."

"Ah, is that how you to keep everyone so calm?" Mao chuckled. Primrose gave him a look that shut him up in an instant.

"Who are you?" The question Misaki plagued her with.

"You don't need to know." She replied brusquely.

A hand moved like a snake and caught her wrist in a vice. Ignoring the stab through the bandages, Hei pulled her down to face him, eyes a storm.

"You know where she is."

The grip tightened. But the green eyes never wavered as they met his night-blue ones, expression harder than hoar frost in the arctic. Without blinking, she pulled her arm slowly away until the holes in his chest muscle forced him to let go. It took longer than she would have thought, though, and she stood staring down.

"If there is anything you must know, then understand this. I will never let her come to harm, lest to end her suffering. But if you want to see her, whole and alive, you're going to have to trust me. For the time being, at least." She crouched low, until their eyes were level. "I have not lied to you, nor do I intend to. So believe me when I say you are better for not knowing me. And that I will help you."

"Where is she?"

"Safe. Asleep, though I know better."

"What do you mean?"

"I felt it when I saw her: the battle raging inside. But I need to speak to Hiroshi before I can figure out why – he knows something, some secret Madam Orielle kept from everyone." Anger seemed to flash across her face. "Once I know it, I can figure a way to bring Yin into possessing back her own body."

Hei nodded slowly.

"Where is Hiroshi now?"

"I tracked him as far as the CIA checkpoint then lost him in that part of the city."

"I'll hunt him down."

Primrose looked him over, one eyebrow raised.

"You're in no condition to hunt. No, I'll find him. Mao?" The cat bobbed his head and slinked off. "You need to rest."

All Hei wanted was the opposite, but knew if he didn't obey soon, his body would.

"I'll find him." She said quietly. Hei nodded again, struggling to stay awake.

"What happened to Kirihara?" He asked faintly.

"I took her home."

* * *

A bell sounded. It thumped through Misaki's skull.

"What the hell?" She rolled over for the alarm, jamming the button. A voice in her aching head echoed "_You have concussion, but no permanent injuries. I recommend aspirin." _Agroan percolated through the sheets as she lurched out of bed. She needed a holiday, she decided, somewhere with beaches.

Something tinkled in her coat pocket and she suddenly realised she was still fully dressed, and covered in mud. Cursing, she reached into her coat and touched the charm.

* * *

It was strange to sit in her office – an office that looked exactly as it had yesterday: the scattered paperwork, the coffee stains – yet to know something had changed. The light was different, like a cloud that had been building for months had suddenly broken. Her head hurt and the marks on her arms wept a foul green pus, but ironically her thoughts were clear as if she had woken from a long sleep.

He was alive.

She hadn't known until that moment how much she doubted her own conviction, yet there it was, irrefutably. The more confusing was why it mattered, considering the last time she came face to face with the Black Reaper, yet in her heart strummed a chord she had forgotten was there. And then there was Primrose – the double faced, lying, stalking vixen that had, for all Misaki's suspicion, saved her life and brought her back. Why? If Primrose was the spy Misaki envisioned, why was her life so important to preserve?

At the very least she owed Primrose a debt, though there had been nothing when she came in; no sign to acknowledge what she'd done, the shadows beneath her eyes artfully painted over. They exchanged pleasantries, trivialities, and she handed Misaki a file. Apparently after word of the attack came back, Section Three had gone to some lengths to find out about the man supposed to sell her the information. The file was of a bespectacled man in his late forties: ex-PANDORA, once a part of project 'Minerva', but current activities unknown.

"What was the project?"

"We're not sure – all the files were sealed shortly before the CIA took control of the base. But, I suppose what information he's selling has something to do with it." Primrose looked anxious. "Morita's being awfully tight-lipped, though. I think he's concerned the Americans might pick him up first, or someone else, only he's given orders that he be taken down before that happens."

"We're to kill him?" Misaki whispered.

"Only if you can't bring him in first!" Primrose smiled happily. "I mean, the message was for us so he's probably waiting to contact us again."

"Probably." Misaki stared absently at the cold coffee. "Do you know why it's so important?"

Primrose seemed to sink. The eyes were like a forest pond, but in them were fathomless depths Misaki couldn't pretend to understand. The guard was ever there, but she knew they were more relaxed than else they would have been. Delicate fingers clasped her forehead, then she straightened as if she had come to a decision.

"Miss Kirihara?" She began sweetly. Misaki frowned.

"Call me Misaki. And don't pretend like you're this innocent little girl with me."

Eyebrows shot up, but there was no comment.

"I need a favour."

"We both know I owe you one."

"Well," She leaned back and appeared to consider something. "If you can convince Morita you already know where he'll be – that the message was already sent, it would leave me free to meet with him, in private, to find out."

"Why in private?"

"We both know if he was brought here, every word would be dissected. And if, by chance, there was something the higher-ups didn't want us to know, we would never hear of it."

"You're asking me to lie to them!" Misaki hissed.

"And you did not lie when you omitted BK-201 from your report?" Primrose responded quietly. Misaki's eyes narrowed, her mouth thin with rage.

"How the hell do you know –"

"I'm not asking you to betray them!" Primrose said earnestly. "Just to help me uncover the truth."

Misaki fumed silently, mulling it over.

"Please," The pretty smile flared across her face as she added "Right now you're my best and only friend."

Misaki groaned inwardly.

* * *

"One advantage of being a cat is people rarely notice when you're following them."

"Must be handy for a contractor." The man eyed Mao nervously. "Can I ask where we're going?"

"Just out to meet a friend of mine."

"A friend?" If anything the man looked more uncomfortable. The cat merely flicked his tail and jumped onto the low wall.

"They'll be looking for me after yesterday."

"I'm sure."

They rounded the corner. Before them stood what must have once been a quite modern mall complex, its glass fronts and doors shinning dully before fading again as the sun slid in and out of a cloud bank. Most shops had paper over the windows, but at least one still boldly displayed a row of mannequins modelling summer fashions. The empty car park added to the dilapidated impression, but to the man's surprise he could see people inside.

"Didn't know people had money to spend these days."

"If there's one thing about humans, they can always find money for junk." Mao sighed. "This way."

There was a café, tucked to the side of the entrance, in which sat a young man in a white shirt, buttoned so that only the top of fresh bandages could be seen crossed over his chest. His lengthening black hair was well kept and he seemed calm, most of the way through a large bowl of beef udon, the other bowls stacked beside him.

The man's eyes darted to the cat before fixing on Hei, his expression as if he were being lead to the gallows.

"I didn't think…well I wasn't expecting _you_. I would have thought you'd be far away by now." He took the seat opposite and felt Mao jump onto his lap. Hei looked up, his face a mask.

"You're Hiroshi?"

"Itô Hiroshi, yes. How did you know who I would be?"

"We have someone else coming." Mao purred beneath the table. "She told us."

"She?"

"What do you know of Izanami?" The night-eyes stared without blinking. Hiroshi visibly sweated.

"I was part of a team that worked with Madame Orielle four years ago on something she discovered whilst with Dr Pavlichenko – actually, I think she knew before then; that it helped her and the doctor to construct the ME, and we were only assigned later." He ran a hand through his hair and glanced about apprehensively. "What we were working on…we fed some things to PANDORA and the Syndicate – technology, papers – but never to suggest there was more behind it. That way, Madame Orielle could keep it for herself, but it all had to be so secret. Most of had only parts of the picture; only me and one or two others knew the reasons behind our work."

"Which were what?"

"To…to unlock the power of the Black Lilly."

Hei stared.

"The what?"

"Not what," Hiroshi looked away. "Who."

"How is this 'Black Lilly' connected to Izanami?"

Hiroshi shook his head violently.

"Not here. If the Syndicate –"

"The Syndicate was destroyed." Mao said, rising from his lap. Again, Hiroshi shook his head.

"If you protect me, Black Reaper, I'll tell you everything." He glanced back around, focussing for a brief moment on a man by the shop opposite. "I know they're coming for me."

Hei felt the rents twinge in his chest, but knew he had no choice. He nodded. Hiroshi stood, face grey, and watched as Mao darted away to find Primrose.

"Where will we go now?"

"Just stay close to me."

* * *

The man opposite watched them stand without reaction, eyes to the floor. Without apparent signal, he drew an object into his hand, carefully concealing it behind his fingers. He added the bullets, murmuring a rhyme to himself.

"_Four, five, how to stay alive,_

_Six, seven, go to hell or go to heaven…"_

* * *

The rain started again, little rivulets on the glass curling and merging, almost artfully. Primrose heard it first: a tapping on the skylight. She had watched the two men and the cat as they talked, sat still and silent in the clothes shop across from them. She watched as they stood, the man called Itô Hiroshi twitching like a starling. She remembered his face perfectly, unlike so many things that fragmented as she tried to grasp them. The tapping increased.

And, just like that, time slowed.

From her vantage, she saw the gun before they did, saw it rise as she leapt. Hei swivelled toward the movement, but it was too far. Instead, he pulled Hiroshi behind him as they ran for the door. A single shot seared across his back, but whether by luck or charity, his body had been pushed beneath its path by the man at his side, before he himself took the bullet between his ribs.

Glass shattered. Primrose burst through the shop's front, landing behind the man with her fingers on his neck, breaking it with a snap. Too slow, too late, and she watched the others, momentum carrying them through one set of doors, and then the other, landing finally under the weeping sky.

Hei choked, winded, turning to Hiroshi. With an effort, he rolled the man onto his back, blood pouring from the wound in his chest.

"You…you," He coughed, spraying the blood that pooled in his mouth. "I'm sorry."

"No, doctor –"

"You came here because you loved her. Even though, it's like a dream for you." He looked up into the rain. "I loved like that once. You…have to find her. The Black Lilly. She holds the key to what you seek."

He was overcome by a fit of chocking. Hei nodded, but couldn't tear himself away as the man spoke, so softly it was hard to hear.

"She smiled at me once. Her eyes were like…a green ocean. When I watched her sleep, I thought about her eyes. Sometimes I waited there until she woke, just so I could see them again. Those…beautiful moments will be lost in time, like…tears in the rain."

Hei's throat constricted. In slender fingers, he took the man's hand and held it to his punctured chest.

"I…always thought it was a pity she wouldn't live. But…then again…"

The eyes closed. And then it was just the rain, trickling slowly down the young face.

Time passed, determined to make up for its lapse. But he couldn't move, not even when Primrose knelt beside him on the broken glass. Without a word, she reached for Hei's hand, still clasped over Hiroshi's, and moved it slowly away so her own rested in its place. The Black Reaper fell back onto his hands, unknowing of what to do. Many times he had seen people die, but not like that. Havoc lying in the street flashed before his eyes, her red hair the same colour as the blood staining the pavement. He saw Yin, crumpled and deathly in his arms, the white light still fading through them, in that moment when he had thought –

"I'll take care of him." The girl said quietly, her voice an orchestra. "Now…run."

It took a moment for the words to sink in, but he nodded, rising unsteadily to his feet. He left like a shadow, leaving Primrose with the lake of blood.

* * *

"How did they get here before you?"

"They must have been watching." She had phoned for help as soon as Hei left, waiting by the body until they came.

"Your hands –"

"It's fine." She glanced at the criss-cross of tiny cuts. "I don't suppose you have a tissue?"

They had offered her a blanket, commenting on the shattered remains of both doors.

"It's just like from a movie I watched once." Misaki said absently. Whether it was from shock or just the sheer weariness she felt inside, Primrose giggled. Misaki gave her a look of disgust before turning back to the scene they watched from the car park railing. Without hesitation, Primrose reached for the draw-pin that held back her hair and pulled, letting it fall back in an obsidian waterfall. Misaki stared.

"Who are you?"

She hesitated.

"If I told you my real name, would you stop asking?"

Misaki appeared to think it over before nodding, as if she were signing a binding contract. Primrose smiled.

"Well, I chose Rose, and then Primrose, because it fitted all together. Clichéd, but comforting."

"So what is your real name?"

"Lilly."


	4. Good Things Come With Sweet Soy Pt1

_**Good Things Come with Sweet Soy part one**_

As the days approached the last of summer, the sky over Tokyo always seemed beautifully melancholic, as if it were aware of an ending. Always the sun shone spectacularly above cloud banks of titanic proportion, staining them a pallet of gold and purple.

Hei gazed at the cloud as it spilled and spread behind the Wall. It reminded him of the storms that built over the amazon as the sun dropped toward the horizon.

Even if all fell to chaos, there would always be beauty in the sky.

* * *

"Well, that was –"

"Underwhelming."

The soggy mass in the pan slowly deflated. It had been better than her last attempt, still it seemed something monumental was missing.

"It'll still taste nice." Misaki offered unhelpfully. Lilly sighed and tipped the sad-looking okonomiyaki onto a plate. Fresh food was still hard to come by and she almost felt ashamed for the way she'd treated the vegetables. She'd been looking forward to this too.

"No one gets it the first time." Mao purred as he wound though her legs. "Or…the second or third."

She resisted the urge to give him a good kick, reaching instead to the flying fox in the cage by the window. It had given Misaki a shock when Mao finally fessed up to his wonderings as a cat, but after a while Lilly got the feeling she liked having one around her apartment. And, since it was safer for Mao to convey messages to her there, Lilly had taken to joining them in the evenings one or twice a week.

"It should be a simple matter of movement and timing." She muttered as she flopped onto Misaki's sofa, Mao jumping to settle in her lap. Misaki looked pitying as she retrieved the plate.

"It's never as simple as that." She took a bite of the oily pancake. "Real food is complicated."

"Isn't this all because Hei let you share his cooking the other day?" Mao asked slyly. Lilly glared at him. Misaki stiffened. She always did when Hei was mentioned, like an automatic stroke. She couldn't deny he was the reason she had decided to trust Lilly, yet it was irrational; the reasoning of a star-eyed teenager – not that she ever was, which made it worse. Mao chuckled.

"Oh, the way to a woman's heart…"

Lilly stood so suddenly he fell, yelping as he hit the floor.

"Oi! There are laws against cruelty to cats!"

"And none against cruelty to contractors." She replied tonelessly. Mao shrank back.

"Three weeks." She hissed. "Three long, pointless weeks. And what have we to show for it?"

She fell back heavily.

"And Hei won't tell me a bloody thing past that we're looking for something buried in PANDORA."

"I thought he told you what Dr Itô said?"

"Not all of it. Hiroshi told him something important, and he's keeping that bit about as tightly locked as a Swiss bank."

"Why?"

"He doesn't trust me." Lilly sighed. "Probably a wise decision, but it doesn't make this easy."

The ex-cop couldn't think of what to say to that. Mao straightened out and went to settle on the table.

"We've covered everything we have direct access to in the database – all the files on Dr Pavlichenko, Suou and Shion, the Memory of the Future, everything we have on Izanami…" She frowned, chewing the words obsessively. "The only lead was that file on Izangi, but that just bred new questions."

"When we spoke about Izangi and Izanami meeting, I assumed that part was clear." Misaki mused as she came to sit next to Lilly. "I didn't realise everyone was divided on the subject."

"Either way it doesn't help." The young woman shook her head wearily, raven hair rippling hypnotically in the soft lighting. "We just have to keep looking."

* * *

"A butterfly necklace?"

Misaki wasn't the only sceptic. Chokichi stared hard at the lab's screen as if would give him some clue.

"Oh, if the rumours are right, this is far more than just a necklace." Lilly smiled excitedly. "Our ear on the black market says this is…well, cursed I suppose the wearer would say."

"Cursed?" Hazuki asked exasperatedly.

"It has a psychotropic effect on the human nervous system resulting in very specific behavioural changes." Seiko pressed a button. The screen changed to a picture of a live butterfly in a glass cage. "Changes observed during PANDORA's experiments on this butterfly variety found inside the gate."

"What kind of behavioural changes?"

"Apparently," Lilly's award-winning smile widened further. "It makes people fall in love."

"To be more specific, with the first person they see." Seiko added. "Like imprinting."

Hazuki sat up.

"Now you can see why this could be _quite_ valuable."

"They incorporated the butterfly into the necklace?" Misaki wondered. "But how did we get the information?"

"One of the files salvaged in the CIA chaos. Most of the data was sealed, but some of the lower priority projects were reconstructed." Chokichi gazed intently at the screen. "Including reports of a containment breech eleven months ago."

"So our job is what?" Hazuki gave Seiko a look of suspicion.

"Simple: retrieval." She pressed another button and the screen went dark. "The file is far from complete and anything that can give us a better understanding of the gate would be useful."

"That's it?"

"Yes ma'am."

"No wonder the boss didn't show."

"Look, Morita may not have come down himself, but we still have a job to do." Chokichi said pointedly. "We all have our areas – let's get to work."

"Oh, one more thing…" Lilly said suddenly as if she had almost forgotten. "There have been other rumours flying around – I don't know whether to believe them myself – that BK-201 has been seen in Tokyo."

This greeted general shock.

"Like I said, it may just be rumour…"

"He really doesn't know when to give up, does he?"

"Hazuki?"

She just shook her head and smiled slyly at Misaki.

"What wouldn't you give to have that butterfly?"

Misaki scowled.

"Let's just be extra careful, then." Chokichi nodded. "Primrose."

Lilly smiled sweetly. _And what wouldn't _you_ give to have that butterfly _she thought privately. They had made it sound almost trivial, but behind the mask of glee she felt the gravity behind what the necklace was capable of. How men were capable of using it…

* * *

Hei sat staring at the old park that had once been their rendezvous. He could still see them – Huang reading the newspaper under the tree, himself sat hunched at the top of the slide, Mao curled at the bottom, and Yin. Yin who used to sit on the swings, silent and expressionless, the sun caught in her silvery hair. He considered going over, but it seemed almost an invasion. For a long time he just sat and stared, as if the memory would somehow bring them all back; make things right.

Not that things were shining to begin with. But after a fashion, he found himself longing for the afternoons spent together under the summer sky.

"There are children about to be here." Mao pointed out from the tree. "They'll think you're creepy."

Hei didn't respond, night-eyes fixed on the swings.

"Ah, don't do this to yourself." The cat leapt down just as the first middle-schoolers appeared at the end of the alley. "You won't change anything by mooching around this dump."

Noise crashed through the park, and the spell was broken. Hei breathed heavily, head in his hands.

"Why couldn't I have killed her?"

"Because you're a pig-heading idiot?" Mao prowled up to sit next to him. "You've been like this ever since that girl told you she'd stop at nothing to help."

He didn't move.

"Shit, give yourself break!" Mao turned back to look at the lolloping eleven and twelve-year-olds. "Take them, for example: in love one minute, screaming about sweets the next. It doesn't matter to them if an old goddess is about to destroy the world, so long as they have the next instalment of their favourite anime."

Hei gave him a look of granite.

"Hey, I'm only telling the truth here."

The black cat slinked away, leaving Hei to his brooding. The Black Reaper tried to clear his head; to reach a logical answer. But none came. Finally he gave up and stood, thrusting his hands into his pockets. Looking over, he was momentarily distracted by a group of girls under the tree, clustering around one in particular who seemed to be showing off. As she turned, he caught a glimpse of a large amber and black butterfly hanging about her throat.

* * *

"Who did you sell it to?"

The man shrugged.

"Don't usually ask."

"What did he look like?"

Again, the man shrugged.

"Average height, dark brown hair, late thirties I'd say. Quite fit for his age though. Wore glasses."

Misaki sighed. They could circulate the description with the local police, but with the whole point retrieving the butterfly for themselves, she didn't know how much damage that would cause.

"Perhaps if we watch this place, he'll come again?" Hazuki suggested, her face betraying her distaste. They had tracked the rumour to a curio shop on the edge of the west slum. It was the kind of shop that sold miracle cures in the form of severed animal parts and special stones that brought good fortune. Most of it looked like junk – Misaki thought it unlikely the man had realised the value of what he'd found.

"It's possible." Misaki wrinkled her nose at assorted rats' tails in a jar. "It's more likely we'll hear what he's done with it."

"If he hasn't sold it already." Hazuki's fingers itched for the hilt of her sword. "This place makes my skin crawl."

"You'll get no argument here."

* * *

"Primrose?"

"Yes, Mr Katô?"

"Please, call me Chokichi." He smiled distractedly. "Only, I wanted to ask, I meant to suggest –"

"Yes, Mr…I mean Chokichi!" She laughed in her innocent little way. It covered the irrational panic threatening to rise out of her heart. Was it childish to be frightened of men? Or was it that she had seen the minds of too many whose hearts were the same?

"Ah, well if –"

"Chokichi." Misaki opened the front door and nodded at her colleague. "You should get home before curfew."

He was about to protest, but Lilly had already disappeared inside.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing."

Misaki shot a look Lilly tactfully ignored.

"Find anything useful?"

"Not a thing." They ascended the stairs to Misaki's apartment, noting the heavy clouds obscuring the stars.

"It'll rain soon." Lilly said absently. Misaki looked at her questioningly.

"Do not doubt the tenacity of men, Misaki. We'll hear of something soon enough."

* * *

The sky rained itself out overnight, but a cold wind brought the promise of more. Other than that, the next day proved as uneventful as the previous. There were no breakthroughs and nothing out of the ordinary happened. To Lilly's infinite relief, Chokichi seemed to have momentarily given up wooing her, and Hei proved as unyielding as usual. Something told her to visit him diligently every day, yet they very rarely spoke. Sometimes they would sit staring at the sky, each one far away, but for the most part she felt painfully present. As if he were silently judging her. And she, too, watched him as he sat stoically for hours in one place without ever moving or changing his expression.

She thought it must be like visiting a mental patient, though it had crossed her mind for him to suffer depression. It wouldn't be surprising.

Only Mao, with his insatiable wit, broke the monotony between sunrise and sunset by stealing her a whole chicken from the American's supplies.

"For you to have another go at cooking with!" He replied thickly to their looks of incredulity.

"You can't go around stealing chickens!" Misaki said indignantly.

"Why not? They had dozens more."

"Bloody yanks are probably hording them." Lilly muttered as she took the chicken. But almost for the first time since Misaki had met her, a true smile flushed her lips. Mao purred.

"What do you think might go?"

"Soy sauce?"

Outside, the rain began.

* * *

_Under the tree, on seats spilling rainwater onto the concrete ground, a girl sat alone under the sky. Her skirt was wrinkled; her shirt torn. Eyes that had once shone periwinkle blue were dull and lifeless. Only the gentle splashing raindrops seemed to penetrate the miasma of pain surrounding her. They reduced it to a dull ache, but still it was there and would not go away. In the rain, her fingers slipped on the knot as she looped it around a branch. Even now she could feel it: a hole in her soul. A butterfly shaped hole, burning in the storm…_

* * *

"Who was she?"

"I don't know. Looks like she's been there since last night."

They both stared up at the girl in the tree.

"I suppose you came here early and found her?" Lilly asked softly. Hei nodded, face blank.

"She was one of the girls from the school over the road." He reached up to brush the water out of his hair. "She was celebrating yesterday. About a butterfly necklace I think."

Lilly's head snapped around.

"A butterfly necklace?"

He nodded in assent. Without pausing, she climbed onto the bench and peered closely at the girl's neck. It was empty.

"It's not on the body…" She breathed harshly as she stepped down.

"Whoever gave it to her must have taken it back."

Lilly nodded. Then she hesitated and murmured "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Calling me."

Hei shrugged, face closed.

"I thought it might interest you."

Lilly sighed heavily and turned to face him,

"The butterfly's an artefact made from a gate organism that causes people to fall in love. But it's just like any other psychoactive drug; once it wears off the subject experiences disorientation and depression. And remembers what they've done."

"Who could have given it to her?"

"Only someone at the school, come on."

The night eyes flicked to the body hanging in the tree.

"Someone else will find her, now come on. We'll find the bastard that did this."

* * *

"And you are…?"

"Ah, Li Sengshi and this is –"

"Rose Evelyn, his sister-in-law." Lilly smiled widely. "You see, we were just looking for a school for my little nieces and nephews and we were wondering if we could have a look around."

She turned to Hei, eyes sparkling.

"Oh…very well." The principal seemed somewhat surprised, but nodded. "I'm afraid I don't have anyone free to show you around, but I'm sure you can find your own way, we're not very big. Be mindful of classes in session."

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Lilly did a little bob curtsey, before grabbing Hei's arm and dragging him out of the room.

"Now, we have a description and we can assume he's one of the teachers." She hissed out of the corner of her mouth. "With luck he'll have the butterfly with him."

"What's the description?"

"Fit, late thirties, dark brown hair, glasses." Lilly recited as she peered into a classroom. It was unusually packed, but then again the school was one of the few that had avoided extensive damage.

"We should split up."

"I'll see if asking helps." Lilly veered towards one of the staffrooms while Hei rounded the corner. Re-adjusting her innocent mask, she knocked politely on the door. Inside someone groaned, and she heard the thump of papers being dropped onto a desk.

"What do you want?"

"Oh," Lilly pretended to be taken aback. "Well, if you're busy…"

"No," The man looked down guiltily, frown softening. "No, as long as it's quick."

_Just a few mannerisms to make men utterly pathetic…_

"It's a bit embarrassing actually, but you see I met a man yesterday about this place and, oh I've quite forgotten his name." The green eyes widened earnestly. "He's about your height, mid to late thirties…dark brown hair, wears glasses?"

"There's a few here fit that description."

"Oh, but, for his age I mean, he looked quite well, ah, toned –"

"Do you mean Mr Ueda?"

"Yes that was the name!" Lilly exclaimed excitedly.

"He'll be in the gym." The man pointed to the building opposite the quad. "Just straight across there."

"Thank you!" Lilly put on her best girlish laugh as she hurried away, banishing it as soon as she was out of sight. A bell rang somewhere on the wall and children began to pour from their classes, but that didn't slow her. Anger boiled beneath her throat, drowning the rational suggestion to find Hei. Then again, being rational had never played a major role in her thought process…

* * *

"You gentlemen saw how well it worked last night!" Ueda smirked. "For what I'm asking it's a bargain."

Two of the men were large, heavily set and smoking cigarettes whilst the third wore a carefully tailored white suit and carried a briefcase. At Ueda's words, he looked grimly at his companions, causing Ueda's smile to fade.

"We are still dubious." He lit a cigarette of his own and puffed. "You have yet to convince me the item is worth the…sizable sum you ask for it."

"What more do you want?"

"A full demonstration of the necklace's power _alone_. I have no use for it if you are trying to con us by seducing these girls first."

Knuckles cracked. Ueda started to panic.

"No no, I'll show you it works!" Sweat seeped from his forehead.

"Oh? This I'd like to see."

All four spun to face the girl in the pretty black high heels and the plain green summer dress. The man in the suit laughed. Lilly smiled, but even they could not have missed its contempt.

"I suppose you still have it on you?" She asked lightly, stepping boldly forward. "Only your special breed of scum could deserve the full extent of what I could do, but," And now she moved so that their faces were inches apart. "If you give it to me now, nothing worse has to happen."

"Of course it does!"

The man in the suit was at her shoulder before Ueda could breathe, but she was quicker than that. Much quicker. As she ducked, a foot carrying a three-inch stiletto spiked hard into his stomach. The man howled, doubling over even as he lunged to catch her, but she wasn't there any more: she was by one of his apish companions, tackling him effortlessly to the ground. The other lumbered forward, only to catch an iron fist in the chest. And still she was moving, almost dancing, as they desperately tried to close on her. Ueda tried his luck, missing by meters as she stepped behind him to grab his throat.

"This doesn't have to get messier." She hissed.

Ueda hesitated, and suddenly the hairs on the back of Lilly's neck stood to attention. Before she could think, something shoved roughly into her left hand: smooth as glass, shaped with wings.

Instantly her vision swam. She opened the hand, the butterfly clattering to the gymnasium floor, but it was too late. Inside, a door she had thought locked splintered apart, flooding her mind with a noise like a sandstorm.

"No…" The ground heard her whisper as she dropped to her knees. "Not now…"

"What's this – that isn't supposed to happen!" The suited man wheezed.

There were voices in the storm; images crashing over her senses in a drowning tide. In the confusion she could feel _herself_ being pulled, torn, her mind ripping like cloth in a hurricane. In her head, a voice she knew was hers screamed hysterically, like the pleas of a child.

"Hei! Hei…"

The sensation of being pulled upright; the butterfly fastening around her neck, but it was far away; another life entirely. Voices rose like ghosts.

_And there you sit, at the eye of the storm, where none can touch you…_

"No!"

The thought burned – something irrevocably hers. And so instead of rising, she sank down, beneath the storm, beneath the light…

"Yin…"


	5. Good Things Come With Sweet Soy Pt2

_**Good Things Come with Sweet Soy part two**_

She stood on the bridge, the water rippling beneath her feet. Since the gate opened, the world had changed: the river flowed where once it was still. The hill with the white flowers had been razed, leaving a crater that filled with water. In the twilight, the surface was black glass, shining in the distance. At its centre, an island marked the place where the creature had appeared; where Izanami had held her audience.

"And I'm still here, little flower. She traps me here."

"You would do him harm. She will not allow that."

The entity behind her fumed, its orange glow reflected on the iron railing.

"And you trap yourself here – why do you do this? Do you not hunger for _life_?"

"I would not live at the cost of other lives." Lilly turned. "I know I would to take them; I will not do it."

"This makes no sense!" It looked like Yin, yet the eyes burned red-gold; the features awash with rage. "You thought as I did before she spoke to you!"

The water beneath them glowed suddenly iridescent blue. A hand, insubstantial as light, rose from the deep, beckoning through the dark. Izanami seized her arm, white fingers burning.

"I will never let go!"

The hand moved, engulfing the shivering girl so that the fingers were forced to release. Through a pane of glass, she could see the silver-haired doll, felt her take her hand. They flew over the bridge, plunging through depths previously unseen, the silence soothing against her aching mind.

"The door." She pointed downward. Lilly looked, the darkness deepening.

"I'm afraid." She whispered. A slender finger touched her lips, and the doll shook her head.

"You are brave. Believe me."

So she sank, away from the gate…only, she was rising too. Rising through layers of blackness to her own mind. The storm continued, but at its fringes she could feel a calming, the rhythm coalescing. For the first time since she could remember clearly, she let herself rise gently to sit above, observing the pattern all at once without being drawn inside.

Fear defined the centre, yet one thread tore through the rest, driven by immovable purpose…

In her head she sagged. Even her thoughts ached. She was so tired, the noise and lights slowly fading away…

* * *

Hei panted, heart pounding. The man on the other end of the wire shuddered to stop before slumping forward. Mao hissed by the plant. They were in a run-down hotel, four kilometres from the school, after searching all day and half the night for Ueda's car. It was a mob house – that much was obvious. The cat trundled down the hall to where it veered left.

"Come on, Hei! She's here somewhere!"

Hei gave him a strange look before following, swift and silent as a hawk. As they approached the door at the far end, raised voices issued through the wood to reach them.

* * *

"I don't see why we can't kill her now!"

"Bodies are expensive." Even the voice winced, as if the owner had just strained a particular injury. "Well, it certainly has an effect: one suicide and one coma. I'm beginning to wonder whether you were honest about what you have there."

"How was I supposed to know she'd react like that?" A second man wailed desperately. "Maybe it's an allergy or something; none of the other girls had that reaction!"

"What about the one who hung herself?" Another man wheezed as if his chest was somehow constricted.

"What they do _after _the effect's worn of isn't my problem."

There was a pause and the first man hissed like a cat. "The fuck it isn't if you leave a body trail. A trail the police will be quick to pick up – do you see where I'm going with this? You've landed us all in deep shit."

"What do we do now?"

"I'd shoot you right here, but that would be just another body, wouldn't it?"

The second man went quiet.

"You have twelve hours to get out, I don't care where, and take that…that _thing_ with you."

The second man seemed about to protest, but he was interrupted by a groan from the other side of the room. It was faint, but its voice was distinct, even in sleep. For the contractors at the door, it was unmistakable. With a crash, the wood lifted through rusted hinges as Hei's foot connected with it, forcing the men on the other side to retreat in confusion. Before any could gather themselves, Hei quickly finished what Lilly had started, using the wire to take down first one thug, and then the other, leaping forward to finish the man in the suit with a swift kick to the throat. He spluttered convulsively as he drowned in his own blood, falling quickly silent. Ueda was nowhere to be seen.

Hei stopped for a moment to take in the carnage. Always, it seemed, he was bathed in blood. Mao on the other hand didn't give it a second glance as he darted past, leaping onto the couch where Lilly was laid out. He winced at the mark on her shirt where she'd been kicked.

"She's still breathing Hei!"

Hei knelt down to the unconscious girl, a gloved hand on her pale face. In sleep, she seemed even younger, the layers of deception and pain lifted at last to reveal the little girl, scared and alone. She reminded him forcefully of Bai.

"There doesn't seem any serious injury." The fingers explored the pressure in her abdomen; the pulse at her throat. "And they removed the butterfly."

"I can still feel it." Her voice was pale as the wind in the trees, but its melody was untainted.

"How do you feel?" Mao padded delicately across the back to her head, sharp eyes scanning her face. The green eyes glittered, coming to rest on Hei.

"You came for me?"

He nodded carefully.

"Why?"

Confusion percolated through the night eyes.

"Because you called to me. Because you're part of my team."

She slowly closed her eyes, willing the pain in her head to stop. His words filtered through her consciousness like warm water, soft inside her ears. As her mind cleared, Yin's image swam before her, fragments of their conversations floating upwards.

_You are brave…only you can choose…trust Hei…_

She grasped at that last one, bringing it with difficulty into focus.

"_What should I do? I came back for you."_

"_You cannot free me."_

"_Why not? If I could harness my power…"_

"_You still lack that control. Your plan would fail."_

"_What should I do?"_

"_Trust Hei."_

"Primrose?"

Lilly opened her eyes in vague confusion, remembering strangely how she had never told Hei her name. Mao opened his mouth to correct him, but Lilly silenced him with a look, reaching up to scratch behind his ears. One secret at a time.

"I'll be fine – I think." Her head felt as though it held an ocean. "Once the effect wears off, I should be back to normal."

"What happened?"

"I –" She halted, wondering how much to say. "I think it interrupted my power…opening it."

"Opening it?" Hei stared at her with apprehension. Lilly shook her head and tried to sit up, belligerently making it a sitting position before slumping back.

"My fundamental power is to sense and manipulate strains of consciousness, just as you can alter matter at the sub-atomic level. The difference is, my…proficiency was never very high, though there were others who believed I possessed a much greater _untapped_ ability…" She shut her eyes tightly. "Suffice to say it _is_ possible for me to use…more if my brain is so…mucked about with. I just have very little control, so I panic and do what I learned to do some time ago, which is to essentially shut myself down."

"You force yourself into unconsciousness?" Mao asked incredulously.

Lilly didn't answer. The heavy dizziness appeared to be thinning.

"What happened to Ueda?"

"Split and ran." Mao snarled, fangs bared.

"I'll call section three to pick me up." She fished into her pocket. "They'll be looking for me – and if they've asked at the school, they'll be able to confirm you were there."

"You'll have some explaining to do!" Mao sounded amused, always a good sign. Hei didn't move.

"Will you be alright?"

Lilly paused to look him straight in the eye.

"Yes." The dial tone buzzed from the phone's speaker. "Thank you."

* * *

"What were you thinking?" Morita's voice thundered through the conference room. "You could have been killed! And now what do we have? Reports of the Black Reaper, in broad daylight. And, on top of that, you lost the target!"

The tall man paced past her, running a hand along the table before turning back.

"I don't suppose we know where this Ueda is now?"

"He didn't come into work today, and there's no word from his home." Chokichi shook his head. "We'll keep trying."

"Give me one reason not to fire you right here." His voice was deadly.

"Really boss?" Hazuki sounded disappointed. "When at last we see the gut beneath that wet blanket she carries around?"

"She could hardly be blamed for BK-201's behaviour." Misaki said wearily. "You know what he's like – and without her actions we might never have made the connection to the butterfly. At least now we have a name, and an identity."

Morita growled, but made no comment.

"Look, we know he's preying on the schoolgirls – perhaps we should start there." Chokichi turned to Hazuki. "We'll continue marking his house, you two" He gestured to Lilly and Misaki. "Scope out the kids. With what happened in the park, they'll be on the grass patches by the road. Easy enough for someone in a car."

They both nodded.

"Primrose?" Morita's face resembled a pressure cooker. "Another blunder like that and you'll be back at job-search so fast your head will hurt. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

"I can't believe they just assumed you didn't know who he was!"

"One particular advantage of my disguise: it's amazing what assumptions people make about your intelligence."

They were watching the group from a bench across the road.

"That doesn't bother you?"

Lilly turned to her.

"I, and now you, know the truth and that's what matters to me." The green eyes flicked back to the scene. "Besides, the looks on those unlucky enough to find out are priceless."

Misaki rolled her eyes. They sat in silence for another few minutes. It was almost time for the children to disappear back inside.

"Maybe he's decided to run." Misaki suggested quietly.

"No…men like that…" Lilly sighed. She had told Misaki the full tale, including more or less what she had told Hei about her power. Without meaning to, she drew a hand absently over the front of her skull.

"Lilly?"

"I'm fine."

The bell sounded. They watched without speaking as the small green emptied, before rising for a closer look. The trampled, littered ground was indecipherable as a jigsaw all one colour. Misaki walked carefully around the edge, turning to see Lilly crouched by the tree.

"Do you think he's been here already?"

Lilly shook her head, but not quite in dismissal. At the back of her mind, the storm had started again, winds blasting painfully inside the soft tissue. But something strange was happening, as if the winds had inexplicably changed direction. She rose unsteadily to her feet.

"Lilly?"

Without warning a vision pasted itself over her eyes, as clear as if it were happening in front of her. She could no longer see Misaki, yet all around her were the children that had just left, yelling happily in the morning sun. But the sun, the children, the laughter – all seemed to echo somehow. As if the scene were merely a fading footprint left on reality. As the shock wore off, she discovered she could move around, her feet leaving no mark on the soft stalks.

_How was this possible?_

None of the children took the slightest notice of her wondering through them, but she could hear the thoughts of every one of them, tumbling each over the other like waves of the sea. She stopped still, confused. It wasn't so much a storm as a mild harrying; air currents that flashed past her own consciousness. Nothing like the hurricane that threatened to consume her very being. In all her life, she could never recall it being so clear…

"_What are you doing here sir?"_

"_I pulled a bunk. What would you say to ditching these guys and coming away with me?"_

Lilly spun around, her mind focussing on the man at the edge of the green. On closer inspection, he looked rather strained, but this didn't taint the smile he gave the pretty thing before him.

"_I don't know, Mr Ueda. Do you think It'd be okay?"_

"_Of course! See, I got a present, specially for you!"_

Lilly blanched. In a second she was over by where they stood – in time to see Ueda produce the shining amber-and-black butterfly from his coat.

"_It's beautiful sir!"_

"_Why don't you put it on?"_

She noticed the thin cloth wrapped carefully around the base so that Ueda never had to touch it. As soon as the girl took it, her eyes glazed over.

"_Yes, that's it." _She heard Ueda think to himself. _"You'll make a lovely little bitch, won't you?"_

Lilly shuddered. The girl rushed into his arms and the two walked off, unnoticed by the rest of the crowd.

"_Where are we going?"_

"_Just a little place I know where we can be together."_

And in his mind's eye, Lilly saw a tiny, dilapidated apartment, overlooking the main road. She saw the eerie mist that fell on its side; far enough away to have avoided the bombs, but close enough to be most completely deserted. A number peeled away from the door…

* * *

"Lilly!" Misaki shouted in her ear. She flinched in surprise.

"Are you alright?"

Lilly stared about her: at the afternoon shadows and empty grass. It had all seemed so…solid, yet now she wasn't so sure.

_You are brave._

"What happened?"

"I saw them."

"What?"

"I saw them…" The girl glanced about to the street behind. Already the details were fading like a dream, their texture turning to glass in her memory.

_Believe me._

"I know where they've gone."

* * *

Her head thumped terribly as Misaki's car sped down the motorway, curving slowly south-east as it went.

"How could you know what was in his head?"

"I told you, I can sense consciousness."

"Even after it's gone?"

"Apparently."

Misaki looked unconvinced, but didn't slow down. The motorway exit took them unusually close to the wall. As it loomed ominously ahead, Lilly felt a touch of the unease shared by contractors as they drew near the gate. For her, it evoked a tingling horror as if she stood at the edge of an abyss.

Misaki's phone chimed to life. Lilly reached to pick it up.

"Confirm the location." Chokichi's voice crackled.

"Two to three hundred meters directly south of the Wall. There shouldn't be many streets still accessible, but I'm afraid I can't be more specific."

The car turned onto a road lined with potholes.

"Copy." Chokichi cut the line. Lilly put the phone down and clutched her head. "I don't think I'll be much use to you."

Misaki turned to her as the car hit a sizable bump.

"We'll need you inside if something goes wrong."

Lilly nodded grimly, but her eyes remained distant. Blood pumped thickly through her ears as she tried to gather her fractured nerves. Suddenly the phone buzzed once more, Chokichi directing them urgently through the maze of streets. When they arrived, a squad of black-clad footmen was already at the door, their faces obscured. At a look from Misaki, they stormed the building, led by Hazuki. Ueda had already gone, but in his terror he had left the butterfly, leaving it to the floor. The girl they found in the bathroom, vomiting over the sink.

"Well, that's our job done." Hazuki tore off a mouldy curtain to pick up the necklace. "What'll happen to her?"

"With luck? She'll just be traumatised and therapy dependant for the rest of her life." Misaki looked at the half naked eleven-year-old wrapped in the blanket as though she was going to be sick. "What about Ueda?"

"He's for the police to pick up." Chokichi muttered dully.

"We can't just –"

"Let him go." They all turned to stare at Lilly by the open window. "Leave him. I can't but think a man like that will find comeuppance wherever he goes."

Chokichi nodded slowly, still staring apprehensively. Misaki stepped over to her with concern, and she turned so that only Misaki could hear.

"And there's nowhere could hide him from me."

* * *

Ueda stumbled as the sky began to spit. He followed the curvature of the wall as it turned westward, lurching across the highway. _What the hell had happened?_ He had a good thing going there, just a bit of cute thigh on the side, and now where was he? The shadows slid drunkenly across the streets as dusk fell. He had been wondering for hours now, ignoring the burning seeping into his legs. As if by a roll of the gods, he suddenly recognised where he was; his feet had taken him all the way back to the school. Panting, he veered down an alley to the park at the other end, raindrops falling ever more heavily.

He dropped onto the benches, his vision misted. The girl, still as a cat and hidden by the gloom, watched silently as he got his breath back.

"I knew you'd come here. It's something unconscious that leads you back to where you started. Or it could just be fate."

Ueda jerked upright in time to see the girl in the dark blue dress, raven hair spilling like black glass down her shoulders. The eyes that before he had thought quite pretty, now exhumed from him a paralysing awe, beautiful and terrible as the falling night.

"I said to you that only your kind of scum could deserve all I could do to you. I could trap you in a nightmare until your mind is utterly gone. I could force you to remember all the lives you destroyed until they drive you mad; until finally you see what you are." The voice was like an ethereal orchestra. "So that's why I want you to turn yourself in. Right now."

Ueda nodded, mouth slightly open.

"And if you don't, I will find you. Wherever you run, in the deepest night I will find you and tear your mind from you!"

The man let out a terrified sob, before leaping away as fast as his legs would take him. Lilly released a long, slow breath. In the morning, the paper would be full of the paedophile responsible for the suicide in the park, his commitance to a hospital for the mentally ill mentioned rather deliberately.

"You did a good thing."

"I'm glad you approved." Lilly said dryly. Hei crept from the darkness to join her as she sat down on one of the swings, water dripping from her hair.

"I've never felt like that before." She said quietly. "So…in control."

"Perhaps all your power needs is time."

She responded by coiling her arm around the chain, resting her head glumly against her wrist.

"Has the butterfly worn off?"

"I can't feel it anymore." Lilly sighed. "But the door it opened…I don't know if I'll be able to close it again."

Hei fell silent, nodding at the concrete. There was silence as the two retreated to their own thoughts, but nonetheless it seemed a barrier had broken, each calm in the other's company

"Hei?"

"What is it?"

"There's still soy chicken left if you want to join us."

The Black Reaper stared at her.

"Mao told me to put maple syrup in with it. I thought it turned out nice."

"Sweet soy chicken?"

She gave him a half smile. There was a pause, but finally he gave in. Still grim, he nodded, letting the water splash down his nose.


	6. In The Silence Of Moonlight Pt1

_**In the Silence of Moonlight [part one]**_

A fickle moon illuminated the back lake through a mist of eerie green. There had been celebration outside the Wall when it re-appeared in the sky, its brief replacement by the copy earth, which itself then vanished, not going _entirely_ unnoticed by the population. Within the gate though, it brought only renewed knowledge of the creature's entrapment there; its inability to extend its will beyond the Wall, which was strange considering the influence it once held even whilst the Other was asleep.

It knelt by the waterside. By the little light reflected on the surface, it greeted its reflection. By all it could tell, it looked like her; the same mouth, the same nose, the same hair. The only exceptions were the burning orange eyes; like a cat's in the shifting darkness. It didn't understand. Pale fingers reached for the image, but snapped back as the tips touched the surface. It didn't burn exactly, but it was so cold. Colder than the Antarctic wind.

It clutched its hand to it, tears welling in its eyes.

* * *

"So what was it you did before coming here?" Misaki asked curiously. They were stood outside an office building near the American embassy. Their target was a diplomat supposedly in charge of maintaining peaceful relations between the Americans and the Security Bureau – a difficult task given the obvious refusal of the CIA to withdraw their occupation forces, despite international disapproval. According to an ear in the government, he had done surprisingly well, but Morita was not so sure. There was something too…clean about his records.

Too perfect.

Thus, he had sent Lilly and Misaki on recon to discern whether or not he was 'bent'. For her experience in Section Four, Misaki suspected the same. Still, they had a few minutes before he would appear and she decided to jump on the opportunity to interrogate Lilly. The girl by her side shifted at the question, passing it off as a stretch.

"Normal things: school, work." The words rolled off her tongue as naturally as bird singing in the morning. Misaki suppressed a frown.

"What kind of work?"

"Not something that compares to this." Lilly chuckled. The action lighted her face, but there was something…_odd_ in the way she laughed. Tinkley. Fake. But after watching the girl, both in deception and truth, she could sense only a flicker out of place behind the disguise. She bristled in frustration.

"And what do you _actually_ do here?" She blurted out, unable to keep the question down. Lilly gave her a wearied look.

"I supposedly organise and review our staff resources to optimise the efficiency of operations." She said bluntly. "But since no one else was taking care of organising the report files either, Morita assigned that too. I asked to come into the field when it got so dull I realised I'd started doodling on the back of the files."

She sighed heavily, and for a moment Misaki could see genuine tiredness shadowing through the sculpted features. She fought to maintain her anger, but inevitably Lilly's distress caused it to ebb. Not that she was about to give up.

"But why come here to work in the first place?"

"Gap year to work overseas? It's not that unusual." Again the words were so natural they made Misaki want to scream.

"_Then why did you lie about your name?_" Lilly stared at her, expression unreadable. With a touch of curiosity. And then, because since she'd started she might as well continue, Misaki added "_And how did you come to contact the Black Reaper?_"

Lilly didn't answer that. She was gazing at a tree slightly over Misaki's shoulder.

"I suppose I neglected to deceive you on that count." She said quietly, at the same time carefully opening her mind and locating the shadow hidden in the branches. Misaki opened her mouth to say more, but seemed to think better of it. Lilly remained silent as her mind focussed toward the glowing strand, listening to its rhythm. It took a great effort to stay in control, but she managed to close onto its distinctive hum without touching it, listening to the ripple of its mind; letting it flow through her own. Yet still all she could distinguish were the vaguest of surface emotions. The rest tangled irretrievably before she could grasp them. In her frustration, she moved closer, forgetting how dangerous this was, and willed the mind to hers; to feel anything, anything at all that wasn't _grey static_…

In a split second, a wave of tumultuous apprehension and concentration crashed against her, followed quickly by a flash of rage. It was the briefest moment, yet Lilly felt the pain and terrible guilt that lay beneath as though it was her own.

She had touched the strand.

It took all her will not to cry out; not to sob uncontrollably. Fighting panic, she jerked painfully back before the memories began, the other strand coiling instinctively, though mercifully making no motion to trap her. Misaki gave her a look of utter bewilderment as the clutter of emotion rushed over her face, but before she could master herself she felt a voice inside her head.

_Do not try that again._

She recoiled, but already the anger was receding, replaced by concern that lapped gently over her fractured nerves.

_I have to practice _she murmured into her head._ I recognised your mind. I would not have been so reckless if it were someone else._

She felt an odd churn of emotion ranging from exasperation to irritation as the strand attempted to disentangle itself. With a second pull, she disengaged and found herself standing in front of Misaki, brown eyes boring into hers.

"What happened?" She demanded, unnerved.

Lilly breathed slowly out.

"Nothing to terrible."

* * *

The black car rounded the corner, sunlight flowing off the surface. The windows were mirrored, making it impossible to see inside, but by the infra-red picture on the camera Misaki concealed against her coat there were two men in the back seat. The two women watched as it passed by; the men glanced at the girl with the pretty black hair, before returning to their conversation. The larger of the two, a man with a shock of grey hair growing determinedly over his forid, shifted nervously as the other continued.

"I can assume your continued co-operation?" His companion said lightly. The man grunted.

"In that case we will expect delivery by the end of the week."

"I can't just re-direct an entire shipment. People will notice!"

The other, whose sallow skin resembled an amphibian, narrowed his eyes.

"I am certain people will notice even more if certain _interesting _information was to come to light in the event you are duplicitous." The grey haired man sank into his seat. "But you have a point. It won't need to be re-directed far, just…enough for it to be waylaid. Does that satisfy?"

The man nodded.

"Good." His sallow-skinned companion tapped the window behind the driver. As the car pulled to a stop, he got out and leaned into the driver's window, kissing the young woman passionately on the lips. The grey-haired man turned away, but the other turned abruptly back to him.

"See that your men are in place." He commented casually.

* * *

"I thought your man had bugged it!" Misaki stared harshly at Morita.

"He used a private car." Seiko said quickly. "We're scanning the police database for the number plate."

"The fact he used a private car and not the one provided says to me he's worried about surveillance." Morita mused. "He's hiding something."

"Well, I've been over the reports on him – the official ones and the ones from the man in the Diet – and I really can't find anything." Lilly confessed. "Either he's a true man of peace, or he's really _very_ good at keeping his books."

"How good?" Morita asked shrewdly. Lilly hesitated.

"Good enough that if he _is_ bent, he couldn't have fixed them himself. He must have some sort of network in his department."

"Very well. Get me background on everyone in that office. In the meantime," He looked back at Misaki. "See if you can't get a little closer to our 'friend'."

Misaki looked taken aback, but nodded. Hazuki frowned.

"Why is it so important we investigate this politician?" She demanded haughtily. Lilly got the feeling that anyone who got overpaid to sit and _talk_ about war made Hazuki's fingers itch.

"Because," Morita growled. "If he is corrupt, the Americans could use it as an excuse to withdraw their ambassador. Relations are strained as it is; suspension of negotiations would be disastrous for both the country and our ops. So we investigate."

The room was silent. Eventually Chokichi cleared his throat. Lilly jumped in mock surprise, enjoying the ridiculous look of apology he gave her.

"It'd be easy enough to get Misaki a position near him." He assured Morita earnestly. "We already have intel on the inside."

"A few minor changes to the team would do the trick." Lilly agreed absently. "Perhaps one or two security updates."

Morita nodded, nostrils flared with something between anger and anxiety.

"Oh, and I almost forgot." He announced as the rest began attending their work. "We are still in the dark to his motivations, but we can't rule out the possibility of BK-201 trying to interfere. Be on alert. Beyond the current mission, his capture or removal is the number one priority."

"Sir!" Chokichi acknowledged swiftly. Lilly sighed privately. Of course, she had other ears…

* * *

Hei followed the car as far as the dingy alley where the man had been dropped off. The decision to follow him and not the car came from years of experience with the mob's scheming, but it was a calculated risk since Hei had not the time to familiarise himself with the location. Once, he could have asked Yin to tell him the layout – to guide his feet when the ground became foreign. Only when she had fallen prey to Izanami, her companionship stripped from him, had he realised how much he relied on her eye.

Or perhaps it was her constant watch that had allowed him to travel without fear.

These thoughts writhed like snakes in some deep compartment of his mind, but for the moment he was focussed, his mind absolute. Whatever eyes the streets, they saw only a shadow flying between the lintels of windows as the sallow-skinned man marched suavely forward. He entered a shabby apartment building; the shadow followed.

The man stopped at the third floor and rapped on a door. It opened only slightly, revealing the face of a small, scared looking old man behind a chain. The youth with the earplugs, suddenly at the other end of the floor, flicked a button on the device in his hand. The old man made a feeble attempt to cower behind his door, but his sallow-skinned visitor was unperturbed.

"I bring good news. You will soon have a cure – assuming, you will buy. And be willing to distribute the rest."

The old man mumbled incoherently, bowing to his knees. He made to shut the door, but the man outside gripped its edge.

"Oh, and the...special item, don't worry yourself with that. It already has a buyer."

The man mumbled again, trembling. His watery eyes fixed on the man at his door, before realising he was dismissed and instantly disappearing inside. The sallow-skinned man smiled to himself before returning down the stairs, glancing about.

"Did you get that?" Hei asked the air once the man was out of sight.

"Loud and clear." The earpiece answered. "Military medical stores sold on the black market? Lucrative."

"Your politician is stealing from the CIA."

The earpiece crackled as Lilly let out a quiet sigh on the other end. Hei could hear a muffled discussion, but it was cut short by her statement that the two women should remain unforthcoming until they had more information, hoping the tape from the car would clarify. When Morita announced that their target had avoided the bugs, Lilly was hardly surprised, however, knowing such a dangerous game would not have been undertaken without precaution. It was no matter – Misaki would soon uncover the evidence, knowing now what to look for, and the only remaining question pondered whether he was bought or blackmailed, either of which could be transferred to Section Three and the information silenced. Problem solved.

No, both she and Hei were considering different riddle – the secret item seemingly hidden in the shipment. They agreed it was unlikely the diplomat knew of it, but if Misaki acquired them the identity and destination of the shipment they might be able to deduce its significance.

Lilly flashed her long, natural-black eyelashes at Chokichi as he watched her leave the lab for the filing room. It wasn't long before she returned, profiles in hand, and laid out her plan for their insider network. Chokichi hung on her every lyrical word, blinking as she asked him a question.

"Sorry?"

"Well, I was only thinking if we approached this from the other angle – investigate any persons who might have taken an unscrupulous interest?" She flashed her eyelashes again before continuing. "Even from the ambassador's staff?"

Chokichi nodded, slightly dazed.

"You'll have intel's report by the end of the day."

* * *

"Hello, Mr Fujita," Misaki bowed heavily. "Your assistant has been deemed unsuitable. I will be your new PA."

Fujita looked her up and down, and then again, brushing his grey hair out of his eyes in a mixture of confusion and mild disbelief. Inwardly, Misaki cursed. She had planned to imitate the way Lilly wrapped every man around her little finger, but somehow it had come off very wrong. Never before or since did Kirihara Misaki think it a bad thing she was not _girlish_ enough.

"You?" He asked in a monotone.

"It will be until a replacement can be found." Misaki assured him. At this, he looked much happier.

"Well I'm sure you'll fit in – until the replacement arrives." Suddenly he looked nervous. "Nevertheless, I'm sure you will do more than an intermediary job."

Out of habit, Misaki slammed her heels together and saluted. Fujita stared.

"I will keep your affairs in order." She assured him, though he still looked a little unconvinced.

"Very…good." He said slowly. "I have important business over the next few days. I don't want it fouled up by a woman losing my papers."

Misaki fought the urge to snarl, but luckily Fujita wasn't taking any notice.

"Your first task is to write out a letter summarising the upcoming transferal of military supplies from the Security Bureau's holding area to CIA regional headquarters for me to sign. And then tidy this place up, I don't like mess."

This time Misaki actually bristled as he stood and brushed past her to leave the office. He hadn't even bothered with her name. Forcing herself out of her posture of near rigamortis, she sidled to the desk and used the access Chokichi provided her to open the files. It took only a moment of scanning to know what Fujita planned to do: his insistence of 'openness' between the two operating bodies forced the shipment to be delivered by truck and through centre of Tokyo. This in itself wasn't suspicious – inside the city, the sheer military force would no doubt be enough to protect it, unfortunately, as Misaki saw immediately, the goods in question were not in port in Tokyo: they were in Iwaki, over two hundred kilometres to the north-east through extremely rough terrain. Perfect for an ambush.

Slowing her eyes, she drank in every detail. When her memory was full to the brim, she primly completed her task and removed the pen drive, but not before she noticed something odd – an icon for a file, tucked innocently in the bottom corner. The name 'Kishimojin' stirred something like recognition as she drew her attention to opening it.

_CLASSIFIED MATERIALS. Perishable organic matter with possible links to activities inside the gate. An unconventional appearance and unusual effects on surrounding human physical and mental conditions suggest similarities to the Heimer Effect on plant life observed within hell's gate. HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION. CONSIDER ITS DELIVERY TOP PRIORITY SUPERCEDING DELIVERY OF OTHER MATERIALS. ITS EXISTANCE IS NEED-TO-KNOW. ALL OTHER INFORMATION IS CLASSIFIED. CODENAME: The Kishimojin Flower._

Misaki stared with open mouthed incomprehension. What had the Americans discovered, and why were they going to such lengths to conceal it? Surely, a scientific discovery ought to have been handed to PANDORA, though she acknowledged the organisation's lack of real power, despite its re-instatement. If they thought this 'Kishimojin Flower' was valuable, it wasn't a stretch for Misaki to imagine them taking it for themselves.

_Kishimojin…_

The name was familiar somehow, though Misaki didn't waste time on it as she gathered her wits and re-adjusted her mask.

* * *

"Yamada Tarô." The malachite eyes narrowed.

"He's been observed with our friend on several occasions, all discrete. But it never indicated an illicit arrangement, so intel thought it unimportant."

"Unimportant?" Lilly fought to keep the incredulity off of her face. "Yamada is one of the business partners of the new 'family'. He organises the hauls – the reports have him arranging deals with the Americans on the ground."

Chokichi frowned.

"He was never indicated as a threat." He mused.

"The smuggled items…they were little more than perfume, silks, occasionally narcotics – small things that would turn a quick profit without being viewed, as you say, as threatening." Her slender fingers traced the edges of the manila folder with some concern. "Nonetheless, he certainly has the contacts to attempt something more...ambitious."

"He intends to use his new relationship to expand his commerce." Chokichi wondered.

"More than that," Lilly flicked the liquid-emerald irises to his, voice dropping with urgency. "He may be using him to steal directly from the CIA."

Her colleague's face drained of colour.

"If the American embassy found out…"

"We must contact Misaki."

She swept quickly from the room, elegant even in her hurry, pulling a sleek phone from her pocket as soon as she was out of earshot.

"Details?" She asked tonelessly.

"The shipment passes south-east of Mt Tsukuba at 0500 hours two days from now." Misaki listed carefully. "The materials will be most vulnerable then."

"Anything else?"

_She's expected this _Misaki hissed to herself. It goaded.

"Something called the Kishimojin Flower. The Americans seem very keen on keeping it with their own."

Lilly suppressed a mocking grin.

"So like them to put that keenness into trusting politicians."

"They think it has something to do with the gate."

The twitch in the sculpted lips faded.

"Will you be reporting it in?"

"Of course." Misaki sounded harassed. "You might not realise it, but I do not have loyalty solely for your deceptions. I have a duty to report anything that may endanger us or our operations: I won't betray it on your _whims_."

Lilly sighed.

"As you will."

* * *

Despite the season, it was cold in the hills. Lilly lay flush against the crest of earth, Misaki at her elbow. It would be another forty minutes or so before light made its touch on the horizon before them, though the waning moon was enough to cast them in eerie shadows.

As soon as Misaki mentioned the name, Morita had tensed. Every muscle seemed to spasm before ordering their immediate preparation to intercept, regardless of their previous orders and motives, just that they move as fast as possible.

And then he had taken her aside to ask for contact with Madame Orielle.

She had said nothing, betrayed nothing, and complied. She saved her mounting anxiety for Hei.

"For this Flower?" He asked, voice easily as concerned as hers.

"What do you know about it?"

"Only what you know. I would speculate it's some sort of weapon. Or artefact."

"Like a meteor fragment?"

They stood together, each in equal silence as the evening poured over them.

"If it is significant to Madame Orielle –"

"We must retrieve it first."

She surprised herself with her conviction, but behind it lay a coil of fear. The very thought that they might be in striking distance of something of such apparent power dispelled all reservations she had of letting Section Three lay hands to the object. Looking to her dark-eyed companion, she saw the same train of thought. They couldn't miss an opportunity like this, nor risk the consequences of the alternative.

"It's a name from my childhood." Lilly snapped back to the present.

"What?"

"Kishimojin." Misaki whispered. "I knew I recognised it. It's from the stories I grew up with."

"How do you mean?" Lilly responded warily. "You mean your mythology?"

She hadn't meant to sound patronising. Misaki shot her a look. She opened her mouth to enquire further, but they were interrupted by the sound of an approaching convoy. In the half-light, Lilly counted six vehicles: three large trucks, two escort jeeps and a smaller black van taking the lead. They watched them pass, concealed by the rise, before stopping abruptly. Misaki tensed.

And then all was chaos as the gunfire started.

_More than perfume _Lilly thought as she saw the Kalashnikovs. Despite their motley appearance, the mob-men knew what they were doing, dispatching the soldiers with the ease of a surprise attack. She watched their pattern, directing the shadow that flitted above them before joining the rest of her team. Hei was invisible to them, although she knew his hand would be unmistakable when they retreated empty handed. Beneath that thought lay her fear – though for whether he would fail, or for what he would find she didn't know.

The Black Reaper felt his eyes dance as the bullet ricocheted off of the metal in front of him. He ducked as another skittered past his nose, falling to a crouch on the precarious ledge that jutted from the door. They could see him now – solid against the lighter grey, but they still had little to aim at.

Like a spitting cobra, a hand flew from the door to fire a wire straight at the shooter's neck. The man dropped his gun with a strangled snarl, but Hei resisted the temptation to send a bolt of electricity into his windpipe. He did not need the light giving him away, so he waited, eyes fixed on the gun at his feet. Almost a minute crept by before the contractor felt the tremor of crushed bone flick through the wire. His companion, unable to see, continued to fire right up until the other collapsed to the ground. Then he ran. The wire whipped back into place.

_No witnesses _an old voice spoke. But it would have wasted time.

Gloved fingers located the opening mechanism before more of them arrived, slipping inside with the grace of a feral cat and re-closing the door. There was nothing within to suggest a special container, but then it wouldn't have been so obvious. After a little searching, the same fingers found a small, black case, just different enough to suggest it might require special treatment. The Black Reaper flipped a small object into his palm and made short work of the lock. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting – something otherworldly, most definitely. The glow that often accompanied things taken from the gate.

The night-eyes stared, curled fingers unable to move.

Not this.

* * *

_The creature felt the stir of power as it stared at the moon. Something it had felt before, and it was angry. How dare it exercise its magics whilst it could not? How dare it presume to flaunt its freedom?_

_The Other stirred beside it, her violet eyes shimmering in the light._

"_You did this?" It demanded of her._

_Yin shook her head._

* * *

In its cooled setting lay a cutting of a black pine, needles yet alive with taught green. Sprouting from this was a flower, silver-white; beautiful, but growing absurdly outward as if it realised the strangeness of its origin.

A white lily.


End file.
